Casing for a pocket umbrella with a flat cross-sectional shape in the folded position



Jan. 20, 1970. P. KRAFT 3,490,470

CASING FOR A POCKET UMBRELLA WITH A FLAT CROSS-SECTIONAL SHAPE IN THE FOLDED POSITION Filed Nov. 27, 1967 INVENTOR PA UL KRA FT A ttorney United States Patent O U.S. Cl. 13533 1 Claim ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A casing for a pocket umbrella of flat cross-sectional shape in the folded condition, the casing having two narrow and two broad longitudinal sides and including a sliding fastener along one narrow longitudinal side which exerts a maximum compressive force on the folded umbrella when the umbrella is enclosed in the casing.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION In pocket umbrellas with a flat cross-sectional shape in the folded position, all depends upon the fact that, after the folded umbrella is put into the casing, the latter spreads out the material of the umbrella cover, as well as the roof ribs and struts, over the entire extent of the cross-section with equal pressure, because there is an as sumption that the advantage of a fiat umbrella as opposed to the usual round one, which is founded in the thickness being less, can be fully achieved.

Although the roof ribs and struts are located in a somewhat precisely fixed position by means of their attachment to the top or to the slider and auxiliary slider respectively and with the free ends in the handle in the collapsed state, these ribs and struts, to which the cover of the umbrella is attached, are inclined to splay out to a certain extent after being collapsed. This is caused on the one hand by folding the cover of the umbrella and consequently means that the umbrella cover can never be spread between the roof ribs and struts equally, as desired, but always with more or less additional folds. Another reason for the splaying of the roof ribs and struts is air which is trapped in folding the cover and which even then does not completely escape from the cover when this is made of relatively good air-permeable material, by way of example, woven textiles, e.g. silk, or correspondingly, completely or partially air-permeable plastics materials.

This splaying out of the roof ribs and struts results in bulkiness, after the umbrella has been put into its casing, especially on the two long sides of such casing, and thus leads to an undesired thickening of hte folded umbrella. Indeed, in the present state of the art, there are already casings for umbrellas, with round cross-sectional shapes in the closed form, with a fastener, by way of example, zippers, buttons or the like, but since the difficulties described above never occur with an umbrella with a round cross-sectional shape in the closed form, the expert cannot draw any suggestion for eliminating or preventing these disadvantages from these known umbrella cases.

3,490,470 Patented Jan. 20, 1970 OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION The main object of the invention is to produce a casing for umbrellas of flat cross-sectional shape in the folded state in such a way that after the collapsed umbrella is put in the casing, it maintains its flat somewhat rectangular form in longitudinal and transverse section in spite of the splaying out of the roof ribs and struts.

Further and other objects and advantages of this invention will become apparent from the following description and appended claims.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In accordance with the present invention, the casing for umbrellas of flat cross-sectional shape in the folded position has a cross-sectional shape with two narrow and two wide longitudinal sides facing one another, corresponding to the profile of the collapsed pocket umbrella and a fastener set in one of the two narrow longitudinal sides of the casing.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION A fastener, for example, buttons or a zip, can only exert a certain locking force on the casing in closing. If the fastener to be closed lies on one of the two narrow longitudinal sides of the casing, then the casing only needs to be drawn round the narrow side opposite the fastener, thus round an angle of 180. As against this, insofar as the fastener would be provided on one of the two wide longitudinal sides of the casing, stretching of the two narrow sides of the casing, thus of an angle of about 360 all told, would have to ensue. Accordingly, the locking force able to be exerted by the casing fastener on the casing is about twice as much with umbrella casings according to the invention, where the fastener is on one of the two narrow longitudinal sides of the casing, as when the fastener is set on one of the two broad longitudinal sides of the casings.

The subject of the invention is shown in the drawing by way of example. In the drawing:

FIG. 1 shows a view of the casing according to the invention, drawn up round a collapsible umbrella with a flat cross-sectional shape;

FIG. '2 shows a cross-section on IIII of FIG. 1.

The casing 1 according to FIG. 1 consists of woven fabric or plastics material and is shown in its closed position, drawn up round a collapsible pocket umbrella with a flat cross-sectional shape in its folded state. Of the parts of the pocket umbrella, only the handle 3 which protrudes from the casing 1 is recognizable. A fastener 4 for the casing 1 is disposed on one of the two narrow longitudinal sides 5, 6 of the umbrella. The lower boundary line of the mushroom head which is formed by telescopically collapsing of a pocket umbrella due to the folding of the cover, is shown at 8.

As is apparent from FIG. 2, with the closing of this fastener 4, a tension is exerted on the material of the casing 1 in the direction of the arrows, whereby the umbrella cover needs only to be drawn round the narrow side of the folded umbrella which lies opposite the fastener. The remaining residual stress from the locking force enables the optimum compression of the collapsed umbrella, especially along the two broad sides. This efiect is intensi- 3 fied when the fastener 4, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, has the width b of the narrow sides 5, 6 of the casing 1. With such a design, it is possible to produce from the locking force a maximum residual stress for compressing the collapsed umbrella.

From FIG. 1, it is seen that the fastener 4 only extends, in known way, along about 40% to 70% of the length of the casing from the opening. This has the advantage that the shape of the casing is also retained, as such, with the opened fastener and the umbrella is suitably put into it, in its closed form, in a simple way.

Having thus described my invention, I claim:

1. A casing for a pocket umbrella with a flat cross-sectional shape in the folded state, characterized in that the casing has a cross-section with two narrow longitudinal sides and two broad longitudinal sides facing one another, corresponding to the profile of the folded umbrella, and a slide fastener along one of the narrow longitudinal sides having a Width corresponding to the width of said one of said narrow longitudinal sides and extending from to of the length thereof, whereby maximum compressive force is exerted on the folded umbrella when enclosed in the casing.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,604,919 7/1952 Harwood 52 2,105,172 1/1938 Voelker. 2,190,264 2/1940 Goldstein.

KENNETH DOWNEY, Primary Examiner US. Cl. X.R. ISO-52 

